Perry’s exit adds another twist to volatile GOP race

The tough-talking Texan partial to cowboy boots and prone to verbal gaffes ended his disastrous 2012 presidential quest Thursday after spending more than $15 million to win just 14,323 votes in Iowa and New Hampshire and a mere two delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Running dead last in the polls, Rick Perry announced at a news conference in North Charleston, S.C., that he was suspending his campaign and endorsing conservative rival Newt Gingrich.

“I have come to the conclusion that there is no viable path forward for me in this 2012 campaign,” Perry acknowledged.

Like his Texas revolutionary hero and distant cousin, Sam Houston, the governor said he knows “when it’s time for a strategic retreat.”

Perry’s withdrawal — and his endorsement of Gingrich just two days before South Carolina Republicans go to the polls in their pivotal presidential primary — adds more volatility to a race that has seen seven different people atop national polls in the past nine months. Perry’s pullout came just hours before the final debate in the Palmetto State and ABC News’ scheduled broadcast of an explosive interview with Gingrich’s former wife Marianne, in which she describes his infidelity and demands for an “open marriage.”

Setbacks for Romney

“There’s two huge (political) storms crossing in South Carolina and the atmospherics are something meteorologists have never seen before,” forecasts California-based GOP strategist Rob Stutzman, one-time adviser to Mitt Romney.

Because Perry has little grass-roots support, his embrace of Gingrich will have little practical value in terms of votes for the former House speaker. But it could provide momentum for

Gingrich by signaling to undecided voters on the right that it’s time to unify around a conservative alternative to Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who once supported abortion rights and signed a state health-care overhaul into law. What’s more, Perry’s words of forgiveness for Gingrich’s personal sins could help inoculate the Georgian against his ex-wife’s salacious allegations.

“Newt is not perfect, but who among us is?” Perry asked. “The fact is, there is forgiveness for those of us who seek God. And I believe in the power of redemption because it is a central tenet of my Christian faith.”

The loser in Thursday’s political machinations was Romney, whose lead over Gingrich in recent South Carolina polls has been narrowing. He also suffered a symbolic setback when the Iowa Republican Party announced a recount in its Jan. 3 caucus had turned his eight-vote victory over former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum into a 34-vote loss.

Perry’s five-month campaign was beset by miscues and internal strife. The Texas governor’s poor performances in presidential debates fractured his early front-runner status and caused his poll ratings to collapse. Instead of being remembered, as planned, for his strong economic stewardship of Texas, he will be remembered for the “oops” moment when he could not recall all of the federal Cabinet agencies he hoped to abolish. Instead of becoming the conservative alternative to Romney, he became the butt of late-night comics.

“Perry’s campaign simply was a disaster,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. “Had he been prepared, Perry could have been the nominee. You cannot wake up late in an election cycle and say, ‘Gee, I think I’ll run for president.’ Perry fooled himself, as have so many in the past, that he couldn’t lose because he had never lost a race. But running for president is different than running for anything else.”

Perry boldly strode into the fray in South Carolina at an August convention of conservative bloggers hosted by RedState.com, seemingly an answer to the prayers of GOP voters unsatisfied with the crop of contenders angling to take on President Barack Obama.

Fundraising dried up

The first sign of trouble came when Perry declared in Iowa that it would be “almost treacherous or treasonous” if Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke printed more money to stimulate the economy prior to the 2012 election.

The unscripted moment caught his campaign staff off-guard and was a warning of things to come.

Perry’s early supporters say the withdrawal had become inevitable given his fifth-place finish in Iowa, his 0.7 percent vote in New Hampshire and his poor poll position in South Carolina. With his drop from first to last in the polls, his fundraising dried up and he was running out of cash.

“He made a late decision to get in the race, and these things need planning and preparation,” said New York County GOP Chairman Dan Isaacs, who had hosted an event for Perry in June. “He just couldn’t recover.”

Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson said Perry “certainly damaged his reputation and his influence” in Texas by his failed flirtation with national office.

‘A year to rebuild’

“But he returns to Texas as the governor of Texas appointing every member of every agency and every board,” Jillson added. “He has a year to rebuild his influence before the Legislature comes back. He can rebuild his reputation, but he will never have the swagger and the assumption of electoral invulnerability that he had before he left the state.”

Contributing to this report were Stewart Powell and Caroline Ward in Washington, Gary Scharrer in Austin, Carla Marinucci in San Francisco, Jimmy Vielkind in Albany, N.Y., and Joe Holley in North Charleston, S.C.